The Vermont Review

Sco' Better Blues: An Interview with John Scofield

By Brian L. Knight

For those who havent figured out yet, there is a humongous jazz-rock-funk
explosion/revival occurring. Bands like Galactic, the Greyboy All-Stars, Medeski, Martin and
Wood and Fat Mama are making the headlines by combining the musical worlds of Herbie
Hancock, James Brown, the Meters and George Clinton. As a result, fans are flocking jazz clubs,
outdoor festivals and nightclubs in hordes to sway to the improvised funk. While these
bands are associated with a "revival", there is one musician who has been
keeping the jazz-funk vibe alive and well long before the need of a
"resurrection." This musician is guitarist John Scofield. Since his graduation
from Berklee College of Music in the 1970s, Sco has been playing jazz-funk continuously as
a sideman and a leader. During the 1970s, he teamed up with the fusion of George
Duke-Billy Cobham band and in the 1980s; he provided the licks for Miles Davis. After his
stint with Davis, Scofield recorded numerous albums with Enja, Grammavision and Blue Note
and within the past three years, Scofield has been virtually rediscovered (although to
many, he was never gone) with his two Verve albums A Go Go and Bump. The
former album has Medeski, Martin & Wood as his backup band while the latter features
members from Soul Coughing, Deep Banana Blackout as well as some of New York Citys
finest jazz musicians. Both albums exemplify the grooves that Scofield has been
proclaiming for the last 20 plus years. Although known for his fusion, Scofield has never
been afraid to play straight ahead jazz  his upcoming album will expose the less
funky side to the guitarist. The Vermont Review recently spoke to Scofield and this is
what he had to say.

VR: Where am I calling right now?

JS: I live in Katonah, New York, which is in northern Westchester County. It is an hour
north of New York City. We lived here for almost seven years and we lived for many years
in Manhattan before that.

VR: You spent quite a bit of time in Boston before that?

JS: Yeah, I went to Berklee for a few years and then hung around for a couple years
after that too.

VR: When you come to Boston to play live, does it feel like a homecoming?

JS: Kind of. I spent so much time living in Boston. I know how to drive around and
stuff. Of course, I know a lot of people. It is near enough to New York, so over the
years, it has been a second home. My sister lives in Lexington.

VR: On each instance that I have seen you in Boston, you have been with a different
band.

JS: I get around.

VR: Is it difficult to go from one band to another?

JS: I embrace it. I feel lucky to do it, actually. I really love having a band and what
happens when you have some music, play it for a while and keep it going. It has been a
while since I have had the same group. I used to play with Bill Stewart and Larry Golding
and before that, with Joe Lovano on saxophone. So we kind of had the same band there
during the early 1990s. The last few years have been changing all the time. I am searching
for the something new all the time.

VR: I see that Ben Perowsky and Avi Bortnick have been
playing with the last couple times. Do enjoy working with those two?

JS: Well, I love those guys. It has been a really good band for me. I call it the
"Bump Band" even though there are not the guys on the record. I made that the record and than
found those guys to come out with me. Also Jesse Murphy on bass. That is a good example of
what I am talking about. We have been playing together now for six months, pretty much
straight. So we really learned to play together and develop as a group. Now, the next
thing is to get new music and keep going with that.

VR: Another thing noticeable with your recent bands is the Avi Bortnicks and
Mark De Gli Antonis use of samplers.

JS: On the record, Mark was the only sample guy but Ben Perowsky also triggers samples.
So does Avi Bortnick. So now we have two sample players  the drummer and the guitar
player. That is a new area for me.

VR: Is something you are going to pursue a little more?

JS: I love it. It opens me up to that "other world" a little bit. (I am able)
to fit my style in with that hip-hop and ambient stuff. Not so much as the music, but that
technology.

VR: It seems that sampling is effective in creating textures.

JS: Yeah, exactly. It is certainly not new stuff. It has been around for years. It has
really worked its way into mainstream music. Its like an instrument  a guitar can be
good and it can be awful. Its the same way.

VR: You have been plying your style of music for quite awhile and now it is becoming
quite popular. Do you feel like you had it figured it all the time and everything is
finally catching up to you?

JS: No. Its not just me. It is a whole genre of funky jazz. I think
with fusion in
the 1980s, things got a little too slick. I always liked the "rootsier" stuff
that was real R&B oriented that kind of jazz-rock. Or Weather Report or
something. The slick stuff was a little weird. This new generation of guys that
are around 30
and the new bands that are coming up seem to be likeminded with me. The kind of jazz-rock
that I like, they like too. All of sudden, I feel more justified. Or
vindicated .I dont know what the word is. And it is not so much "my
music"  I am a part of that. The same people that influence me influenced those
guys. As well as maybe I influenced these guys too because they have heard my records.
Its mainly that we all play in the same style, which is great. I am just lucky to
have that turnaround happen while I was playing.

VR: That all has to do with the growth of jam bands as well.

JS: It is impossible to define what a jam band is because my jam band is very different
from anybody elses jam band. There is this audience that listens
to .basically improvised rock that also happens to go for my funkier type
stuff. It is great because the barriers are down. The audience, which is not a jazz
connoisseur audience, is there to groove and dance and be turned on by the
music and by the spontaneity of it. They are not there expecting to here
Christina Aguilera's exact reproduction of her hit single. They are there to hear us come
up with different. That whole thing is amazing for a non jazz audience. I love it.

VR: It must be giving jazz a great boost in terms of concert attendance, sales
etc

JS: I dont really know ..for my record sales it has .. as
for jazz itself, I think it will. It just means that jazz lives and there is a new
generation that is into the concept. But with this whole genre of the jam band, it is
different again. I think portion of them will become actual jazz fans.

VR: Jam bands will be able to use as a point of embarking. They will buy an earlier
album of yours, which may lead them to getting into Joe Lovano or somebody.

JS: Yeah, they could get ahead into straight-ahead jazz.

VR: That is how I got into jazz. First came the fusion of the Mahavishnu Orchestra
which led me into Miles Davis which led me into Herbie Hancock which led me into Wayne
Shorter which led me into Art Blakey and so on. Now I am listening to Louis Armstrong and
Sidney Bechet.

JS: Me to. I started getting into jazz in the late 1960s. It was already ..you
know Bitches Brew.

VR: Would you consider what you were doing with Miles Davis in the 1980s to be
appreciated by a "jam band" fan?

JS: I dont know. I think they would. I think jam band fans would really like Agartha,
Bitches Brew and In A Silent Way.

VR: Speaking of Miles Davis, he was an individual who nurtured lost of young talent in
his bands. I see that same quality in you as a bandleader. Is that something that Miles
Davis may have passed down to you?

JS: Maybe so. You get to a certain age. There are so many great players who are younger
than you .why not? It s stupid to just play with people who are your age. As
you grow older, there are people who are twenty years younger than you who are mature
musicians. I am 48 so somebody who is 28 could be really great. You are really missing out
on a lot if you dont play with people who are younger than you. I guess there was a
time when people that were twenty years younger than them didnt play the same kind
of music. That is not happening now.

VR: One other similarity I see with you and Miles Davis is an economy of
notes

JS: Miles was always one of the greatest at that. You know the old saying:
Brevity is the soul of wit. I think that really applies to jazz improvisation.
First of all, I dont have tons of technique. If I had tons of technique I would
probably play differently. I do have technique, it is my own technique. Louis Armstrong
was economical and I love his music as much as any playing in the world. So is BB King and
Albert King. So is Lester Young, so is Miles. I really like Paul Desmond, the saxophonist.
Kenny Dorham the trumpet player. Count Basie. Check out his piano playing, he has the most
minimal stuff ever. I sure Miles was influenced by him.

VR: Do you treat your albums as an elaboration upon the previous one or do they stand
alone?

JS: I think they are in a way. Just because they move in chronological sequence but I
dont try to do that. I dont try to look at anything more than the one album at
a time. I cant. I dont have any grand plan at all.

VR: So there is no extension from A Go Go to Bump?

JS: Well, there is but it is a natural one. I could have made a duo record with the
Sufi drummers. I wanted to go in the same vein with those two albums. The next one will be
completely different. I already made it. I made a straight ahead record  a real jazz
record with Kenny Garrett on saxophone, Brad Melhdau on acoustic piano, Billy Higgins, a
great drummer and Christian McBride on bass.

VR: I interpret A Go Go as a word associated with the golden age of rock &
roll. Is Bump a reference to anything?

JS: The same thing. To rhythm and music. Moving and grooving to the music. I like that
it is not too specific. It is just words like Blap  a rhythmic sound. A Go Go just
cracks me up. That whole phrase from the 1960s. Than somebody told me that it is an
African thing. I said " This is from France, right?" I remember that the clubs
were "A Go Go". This was in Paris, real early in the 1960s. It reflected a dance
thing. Than somebody said that they got it from Africa.

VR: I read that John Medeski that your love of music comes from a love of New Orleans
music. Do you agree?

JS: Yeah. I dont know if that is where my style comes from but that sort of funky
groove form New Orleans is the greatest. I have always been a student of that. That level
of groove is in the greatest jazz from New Orleans. Louis Armstrong being from the city
and representative of the music. There is also that R&B stuff that is influenced by
that town. I played some with John and this guy Zigaboo Modeliste from the Meters. I
realized that "God, it is their neighborhood.". Where those guys from New
Orleans grew up, called the Ninth Ward, was responsible for so much stuff. It is special
thing.

VR: Do you spend a lot of time there?

JS: No, not that much. Just over the years Ive played there and really liked
musicians from there and in New York too, you know. My brother-in-law lives there and my
mothers from there, and we used to have family there and when I was a little kid we
used to go there, but I never stayed for more than a few days.

VR: Im going to name some people and I would just like to here what you have to
say about them .James Blood Ulmer.

JS: Yeah hes beautiful, I havent heard him a long time, and I really
thought he did some interesting stuff with Ornette Coleman, but again I am not really
familiar with his music.

VR: Charlie Christian?

JS: Hes a real source of inspiration to me and has been over the years. When you
think about it, its like a technological thing too because here was this genius
guitar player. There had been others before him but no one was able to play with a big
loud jazz group because they couldnt plug in. So they invent the electric guitar and
here comes this nineteen year old guy, Charlie Christian. It all just happened the
same year almost. I wonder if they had invented the electric guitar in 1929 what would
have happened. Charlie Christians genius coincided with the electric guitar, and
being an electric guitar player I just love listening to him play all that jazz on guitar
on those couple of recordings. He had this inner fire, it was beautiful. Miles Davis told me
he thought Charlie Christian was the main instigator of the whole be-bop thing that maybe
Bird
heard Charlie Christian in the early forties late thirties and was inspired by that.

VR: Dave Holland?

JS: Ah! Alright hes the Charlie Christian of the bass. Ive gotten to play
with Dave some in recent years, and it has been so pleasant and wonderful. Hes the
most consistent musician I think I have ever played with. I played this tour with Jack
DeJohnette, Herbie Hancock and Mike Brecker. It was Herbie Hancocks New Standards
Tour with Dave. I mean everyone was playing wild, and Dave just anchored the whole thing
and it
was unbelievable. Then there is the whole way he can play the acoustic bass with the
fluidity and a completeness to his lines that I think in unprecedented actually.

VR: Hes great. I saw him up in Montreal a few weekends ago. It was fantastic.
Kurt Rosenwinkel?

JS: Hes smoking! Now there is a new generation of jazz guitarists around that he is the vanguard
of..... hes one of
the best at playing and he just keeps getting better and better each time I hear him. I
was lucky because I got to hear him ten years ago and met him when he was living in
Boston. He went to Berklee. I met him when he was a student, and he was great
then .watch out for that one he might take all the gigs.

VR: Eric Krasno?

JS: Hes another one! Eric is coming more from the R&B thing, and I love his
band Soulive. Im a big fan of that band, and Ive
gotten to sit in with them a lot. And Eric has got it, hes superbad. I love playing
with him.

VR: Bill Frisell?

JS: Hes somebody who changed the way I play music and play the guitar. Getting to
play with him and listening to him. Getting to play the same music with him really
influenced me a lot, and Im glad I know him. Hes magic.

VR: I could do this all day, but Ill give you one more. Mark Johnson?

JS: I got to play with him with Bill Frisell and Peter Erskine on drums. Im proud
to have known him and been in the same generation and scene with him. Hes another
magician when it comes to playing improvised music.

VR: Changing gears here. You went to Berklee, which is more important to you education
or experience?

JS: Well, they go hand in hand. Experience educates you. You have to put in the time.
You have to put in the work however you educate yourself. You have to acquire knowledge
and then put it into your fingers and into your music, and there are a lot of different
ways to do it. Experience is essential to play. We dont live in a microcosm.
You
dont live in a glass bubble, you have to get out there and play with people and
experience what music is all about and the different way it can be played. You have to
play with players that are better than you; that is essential to getting better.

VR: Where would you be happier playing in a small jazz club or an outdoor festival?

JS: Probably a small jazz club, but not all the time. I like both. The smaller settings
are the optimum place to hear the music and to feel the music for us and for the listener,
but I love the outdoor jazz festivals and would miss that experience.

VR: You are documented on record your tour in Europe with George Duke and Billy Cobham.
Do you like playing in Europe?

JS: Oh yeah. When I made that record with Cobham and Duke, it was 1976. Since then, I
every six months I will go to Europe and play for month. I feel like lived four years in
Europe in my lifetime  not consecutively. I do not think there would be modern jazz
as we know it without the European audience and the European jazz market. I feel lucky
just getting to be in all those cultures.

VR: I know that with progressive rock that Italy has a wealth of fans. Is there any
particular European country that has an equivalent fervent fan base for jazz?

JS: It is all Western European countries.

VR: What do you do when you are not playing music?

JS: I spend a lot of time with my family. Music is my main thing, that is for sure. I
like people and shooting the shit. I like my life, my house, my family, and spending my
time with them. No big hobbies.